Go Big or Go Home! 17 Days of Disney Dining! COMPLETE & Food & Wine Fest Index

[dvc4life]

I have absolutely loved reading your report! What a wonderful trip you two had. 17 days! I would love to be there for 17 days during F&W. And I do remember seeing some of your posts on Barb's live thread. We love F&W time. Can't wait to be going back again this year.

Thank you for the awesome TR. Can't wait to see your final dining reports.

 

[CluelessDisFan]

Subbing! I love your report! I clicked through each F&W link. We're heading to our first F&W fest in October, although we won't have nearly as much time as you did. Thank you for all the details and pictures. I'm even more excited now. I will show some of these to my DH after he gets off work. He's going to die over the Wildmushroom Beef Filet from Canada. It looked so tasty! Thank you again for a great TR!

 

[jabead]

We did it! We both did all 30 booths. I saw two Eat To The Beat concerts and Rob saw three. We really did it up this trip. We loved every second of it. I wish we could spend that much time at F&W every year. It was the best experience. We also got these cool shirts, which were the only real souvenirs we bought this trip.

I love your shirt, Jeri! Also, congrats on completing all 30 booths of the F & W festival. I think you and Rob were the only reporters for the live thread who made it to all 30. Bravo!

Also, I think your dining plans for September look great. I just wish they were for about a month later, like the last week of October when I will be there.

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

I have so loved your report, and as for your upcoming ADRs, I can only say "I feel another trip report coming on!!"

 

[smile4stamps]

Hey Jeri! So SAD that your report is done! I know I've not been commenting much but I HAVE been reading along. Your trip must have been great! I bet you are happy that you will get at least a day of F&W in September!

Yes.. The "stamp of completion" really should be something a bit more than that! It's actually why we didn't complete our passport cause I mean.. really its a LOT of money to do that! A pin would be a nice touch!

 

[wilma-bride]

Jeri, you guys are awesome Well done on completing every single booth. I am a little ashamed to admit that DD and I visited even fewer of the booths at Flower & Garden than we did at Food & Wine. I am pretty gutted about it, even now, since there were so many items I wanted to try. We just didn't seem to have enough time or be hungry enough at the right times. Looking forward to more updates, although not looking forward to it being over.

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

I was very late to this DR... Started and finished reading everything today! Loved every update and all your experiences! A 17 day trip! So jealous!

As I was reading, I kept telling my DH... "We need to go here" or "why don't we try there".... Needless to say, we have a lot of places to try!

The plan for your fall trip looks great... Convincing your DH to go to tea! Good job! I've been working on that too...
You have our current favorite restaurant on you list... Narcoossee's!!! YUM!! I've never had the almond cheesecake there though, but thanks to your review I am next time!

Thanks for the enjoyable read!

Thanks so much for joining in!

There are just too many great places to try and fit in all in one trip. We skipped so many places even during a 17 day trip. I think I need at least one full month there next time. I wish!

I finally talked him into tea! He had the flu a couple weeks ago and was unbelievably sick. I took such good care of him and he was so appreciative that he said he would gladly go to tea with me as a thank you.

I am really torn right now on Narcoossee. I want to go, because we haven't been there for a full meal in quite a few trips, but I am also considering trying Citricos. I'll probably flip flop between the two for the next 6 months.

I have absolutely loved reading your report! What a wonderful trip you two had. 17 days! I would love to be there for 17 days during F&W. And I do remember seeing some of your posts on Barb's live thread. We love F&W time. Can't wait to be going back again this year.

Thank you for the awesome TR. Can't wait to see your final dining reports.

Thank you so much!

I am really looking forward to our F&W day in September. And we just found out that my SIL and her boyfriend will be arriving in WDW on that first F&W day, so we'll get to spend the day there with them which will make it extra fun. Not trying to wish away the spring and summer, but I can't wait for this trip!

Subbing! I love your report! I clicked through each F&W link. We're heading to our first F&W fest in October, although we won't have nearly as much time as you did. Thank you for all the details and pictures. I'm even more excited now. I will show some of these to my DH after he gets off work. He's going to die over the Wildmushroom Beef Filet from Canada. It looked so tasty! Thank you again for a great TR!

Thanks so much for joining in!

There is just not enough time to enjoy everything at F&W. As long as the menus stay fairly similar to last year I'll at least have an idea of what I must try this time with my one day. I definitely have a few booths I know I can skip. I can't wait for them to release the menus so I can start plotting it out! I hope you and your DH have a wonderful time there in October!

I love your shirt, Jeri! Also, congrats on completing all 30 booths of the F & W festival. I think you and Rob were the only reporters for the live thread who made it to all 30. Bravo!

Also, I think your dining plans for September look great. I just wish they were for about a month later, like the last week of October when I will be there.

Thanks Barb! I still can't believe we were able to try so much stuff at the festival!

I know, I wish we were going later too! I swear, one of these times I am going to coordinate to finally meet all of you wonderful folks.

By the way, I still have your number in my phone and then my new boss at work gave us her direct work line in case we needed to call out because of all the snow storms the last couple of months. Well, her name is Barb too and I have both of you listed in my phone only as Barb. I almost accidentally called you at 6am a few weeks ago to tell you I couldn't make it to work because of the snow. I realized it wasn't the right Barb a moment before I went to call the number. I don't think you would have cared to hear about my snow situation that early in the morning. Needless to say, there is now a clarifying WORK* next to the other Barb.

I have so loved your report, and as for your upcoming ADRs, I can only say "I feel another trip report coming on!!"

Thanks so much for reading along this whole time! There will definitely be another DR! I love writing these. I get to relive the trip all over again. I was just finally able to put in for my time off at work, so it's finally real! A whole week at BLT is going to be heaven.

Hey Jeri! So SAD that your report is done! I know I've not been commenting much but I HAVE been reading along. Your trip must have been great! I bet you are happy that you will get at least a day of F&W in September!

Yes.. The "stamp of completion" really should be something a bit more than that! It's actually why we didn't complete our passport cause I mean.. really its a LOT of money to do that! A pin would be a nice touch!

Hi Paula! I'm so sad I only have two updates left. I am so looking forward to our F&W day! I don't know how I'm going to fit it all in. You know how people always say on here that they see other people puking in bushes during F&W? We all assume that it's caused by too much alcohol, but maybe sometimes it's just people like me who only have one day there and they are trying to eat too much rich food all in one day.

I don't even want to THINK about how much money we spent at F&W. That completion stamp cost us more money than I care to admit to myself. Don't think that will be happening this trip. It would be pretty much impossible to hit all 30 booths in one day. Or would it...

Jeri, you guys are awesome Well done on completing every single booth. I am a little ashamed to admit that DD and I visited even fewer of the booths at Flower & Garden than we did at Food & Wine. I am pretty gutted about it, even now, since there were so many items I wanted to try. We just didn't seem to have enough time or be hungry enough at the right times. Looking forward to more updates, although not looking forward to it being over.

F&G looks like it has some wonderful offerings! We were there for F&G 3 or 4 years ago (I'm losing track) and they started the food offerings the following year. Bummer. Not sure if we would really go during that time of year again, but I would love to check out the food.

I don't want it to be over! I need this as an outlet so I don't drive Rob insane with my obsessive Disney planning for a trip that is still 6 moths away.

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

Once we left Epcot for the final time this trip we went back to the resort for some pool time. Rob wanted to go to DTD to see a movie. I wanted to see the movie too, but I really wanted to just stick to the resort area and take it easy since we had a long drive ahead of us the next day. Rob was pretty insistent, so we left the room in search of dinner before we left for the movie. We were on our way to Captain's Grille for a return trip, but I had a sudden change of heart.

We were walking down the boardwalk and when we passed Big River Grille I had a weird craving for quesadillas. I stopped to check their menu and sure enough, they had them. Rob was okay to try something different, so Big River Grille it is.


We stayed in the room right above here on our honeymoon, so just standing outside here brought back some great memories.

We were seated immediately and we started to look over the menu.








I have to say I was kind of regretting my choice when we first sat down. It smelled like bleach and old fish and our table location was very odd. I really almost left because the smell was really bothering me. I'm not sure why I even stayed, but I did.

Rob started with the Steamboat Pale Ale.


I had a peach iced tea which was pretty darn good.


To start we split the chicken nachos.


These were really good! We ate everything on the plate.

For our entrees Rob had the Hickory Bacon Burger and added fried onions to it.


That's a pretty lousy picture, sorry about that. He liked it. Not too much you can say about a bacon cheeseburger really.

For my entree I got the chicken quesadillas I was so suddenly craving.


These were actually really really good! They totally hit the spot. Not our most exciting meal ever, but it was still very tasty. The horrible smell in there was quite a turn off, but the service was great and the food was good, so all in all it was a good choice.

Then we made our way to DTD, which took FOREVER, but we met some very lovely people on the bus ride there. We saw The Counselor, which was disturbing and turned out not to be the best choice of activities for the evening. If only Rob wold listen to me. I know it all.

The bus ride back was even worse! It took so long for a bus to even get there and the entire bus area was overcrowded and the buses couldn't even move once they finally had people on them. It took hours to get out of there. Such a nightmare! People were getting very very upset.

We finally made it on a bus and we got off at the first stop (Swan, Dolphin, I forget which one) and walked over to Boardwalk which takes MUCH less time than riding the bus all the way there. I got to view this beautiful sight one last time.


We were so sad it was almost over!

Now it's time to pack up all of our junk and get ready for the long drive in the morning.

Up next, our farewell breakfast!

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

Oh no, final update!!!!

We got all of our suitcases and bags loaded out in the car bright and early and said our final goodbye to our room at Boardwalk.


The sun was still coming up and there were all of these hot air balloons in the sky and it was such a beautiful sight to send us off. I wish I could have gotten a good picture because it was so breathtaking to see.

I drove us over to AKL for our final Disney meal of the trip.


We had no trouble finding a parking space and made our way inside the hotel for breakfast at Boma.




We ate here once for dinner back in 2007, but this was our first time here for breakfast and I was really excited to try it.

Even though we arrived about 30 minutes before our reservation we were seated immediately and our server came right over to take our drink orders. She was super friendly and we had wonderful service here.

We both started out with coffee and juice.


Then we hit up the buffet. Here is my first plate.


I decided to carb it up on this first plate! Clockwise from the top I had roasted tomato, a banana macadamia nut muffin, ham, a chocolate chip muffin, an apple pocket and a blueberry muffin. Everything was yummy!

Rob's first plate was a massive omelette with everything but green peppers and jalapenos.


Now for my second plate.


M&M pancakes, bread pudding with pecan sauce, turkey bobotie, breakfast potatoes and bacon. Loved everything!

Rob's second plate.


Ham with their signature mustard sauce, scrambled eggs with goat cheese and bread pudding with pecan sauce. He loved everything too!

This was a wonderful final breakfast. It was great to be in the atmosphere at AKL before we left too. It was so relaxing and enjoyable. We decided this should be our farewell day tradition from now on, so I booked it for our final day on our September trip.

Now it's time for the long terrible drive back to lousy New Jersey. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

We got all the way to South Carolina before I realized I was still wearing my MagicBand.


Oh no! Disney has indoctrinated me!

We made it back to NJ just before 10pm that night and we had made the serious mistake of not eating at all during the drive. We ordered a pizza on the drive and picked it up when we got back to town. We DESTROYED that poor pizza.

Then it was back to everyday life as usual. No fireworks at the end of the night. No Ghiardelli's. No swimming pools. Bummer. But not to worry, in case you missed my announcement, we'll be back in September! 6 nights at BLT with possibly more days to be added. Thanks so much to everyone for reading along and thanks to everyone for the lovely compliments along the way. Looking forward to reporting again in September!

 

[DisneyMom2Boyz]

Jeri, i'm sad your trip is over! I really enjoy reading your reviews they are so interesting and all the pictures are great. We'll be back on April 24th and would love to go back in September also, but probably not! But I'll have your Septmber report to hold me over till next time.

 

[smile4stamps]

Ahh! No more Food Porn courtesy of Jeri!!

I'm glad your Big River Grille meal was good. I had just a burger there last June and was not impressed. Hunter and I had a drink there in October and it was just way too loud we couldn't even hear each other!

I had my Magic Band on all the way till we reached our house.. through the airport, dinner everything! It's a sad time to have to take it off and know you aren't putting it back on in the morning.

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Ahhh Jeri a fitting end to your trip, it all looks lovely. Now I must remember to watch out for you after September

 

[MrsB1228]

Loved the whole dining report Jeri! You visited many of our favourites and gave me some new possibilities to consider for our upcoming trip. Congrats on accomplishing your goal of trying something at every F&W booth and I agree they really should make a bigger deal of it. To not even acknowledge it is truly a bummer.

Your September line-up looks great, I'm looking forward to reading about it!

 

[WDWaddictt]

What an amazing DTR!

Reading about your F&W experience makes me very excited to try it this September when we go!

We also love Boma! The atmosphere and food is amazing!

Thanks again for sharing and looking forward to reading more from you!

 

[Redwitch]

Thanks for the review! I enjoyed your culinary adventure.

 

[klacey1]

Thanks for these awesome reviews!! Those Big River Grille nachos look amazing!
Looking forward to your reviews from your next trip!

 

[hill6]

Great review. What was the total Tables in Wonderland savings?

 

[vettegirl]

Fantastic reviews thank you for sharing with us.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Mousemommy1]

Lurked along and read the whole thing. Great review!!!!

 

[Cind]

Best dining report ever! Thank you for posting!